The preference we have are a product of the beliefs we have about what will make our lives better over the long-run. My preference not to smoke is entirely a product of the fact that I believe that it will increase my risk of premature death.
I think this is precisely what I’m inclined to dispute. I think I simply have a preference against premature death, and that this preference doesn’t rest on any belief about my long-run wellbeing. I think my long-run wellbeing is way too weird (in the sense that I’m doing things like hyperbolic discounting anyway) and uncertain to ground such preferences.
Nevertheless, I think it is irrational to smoke.
Maybe this points to a crux here: I think on sufficiently demanding notions of rationality, I’d agree with you that considerations analogous to cluelessness threaten the claim that smoking is irrational. My impression is that perhaps the key difference between our views is that I’m less troubled by this.
I don’t think a Parfitian understanding of identity would help here
I’m inclined to agree. Just to clarify though, I wasn’t referring to Parfit’s claims about identity, which if I remember correctly are in the second or third part of Reasons and Persons. I was referring to the first part, where he among other things discusses what he calls the “self-interest theory S” (or something like this).
I think this is precisely what I’m inclined to dispute. I think I simply have a preference against premature death, and that this preference doesn’t rest on any belief about my long-run wellbeing. I think my long-run wellbeing is way too weird (in the sense that I’m doing things like hyperbolic discounting anyway) and uncertain to ground such preferences.
Maybe this points to a crux here: I think on sufficiently demanding notions of rationality, I’d agree with you that considerations analogous to cluelessness threaten the claim that smoking is irrational. My impression is that perhaps the key difference between our views is that I’m less troubled by this.
I’m inclined to agree. Just to clarify though, I wasn’t referring to Parfit’s claims about identity, which if I remember correctly are in the second or third part of Reasons and Persons. I was referring to the first part, where he among other things discusses what he calls the “self-interest theory S” (or something like this).